Chemical Technology April 2015

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Chemical Technology • April 2015
Engineering Consultants key to unlocking project pipeline
Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA)
reiterates that there is a distinction between
engineering consultants and consultants.
Engineering consultants are registered
professionals with the Engineering Council
of South Africa. They are key to infrastruc-
ture delivery as they are front end leaders
responsible for investigation, planning, design
and construction monitoring of infrastructure
projects.
The then Minister of Finance, Pravin
Gordhan said in his medium-term budget
policy statement in 2014, that the largest
cuts to “reduce costs and eliminate waste-
ful expenditure” would be to the amounts
spent on consultants. He added that there
are of course necessary engineering and
advisory services employed by government
departments which bode well for CESA and
its over 500 strong member firms employing
over 22 000 staff. However, it needs better
contract management and stricter control of
consultancy fees.
CESA has been vocal, open and honest
with our dealings with the State and we have
proper controls that require our members
to perform their duties with integrity as we
subscribe to the principle of business ethics.
It believes that the government should be
spending more on engineering consultants
in order to unlock projects and improve infra-
structure spend and infrastructure delivery,
which is necessary to alleviate inequality,
poverty and unemployment.
CESA’s Acting CEO Wallace Mayne says
that the workload of engineering consultants
is two thirds government work and a third is
private sector work.
The lack of engineering skills within Gov-
ernment leads to blocked project pipeline,
poorly packaged bids to procure engineering
services, delayed project implementation,
inability to monitor service level agreements
and implementation of projects. Consulting
Engineers play a vital role in partnering with
Government as their trusted advisors to en-
sure that sustainable solutions which provide
both quality and value are procured by the
various departments and at the same time
providing skills transfer to mentor and train
Government personnel to ensure continued
service delivery.
“We have to reinstate the technical man-
agement capacity within government. There
are enough engineering skills within the coun-
try to cope with the infrastructure workload,”
avers Mayne.
He argues that the slow release of infra-
structure projects is as a result of lack of
technical skills in the government.
“CESA member firms are readily available
to partner with Government to ensure that the
project pipeline is unblocked, critical skills are
transferred to the government, which will lead
to service delivery imperatives being met and
the quality of the lives of the people of South
Africa improved,” concludes Mayne.
Contact details:
Wally Mayne (CEO)
Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA)
Tel: 011 463 2022
Email: wall
Dennis Ndaba
CESA Media Liaison
011 463 2022 z
Abe Thela
CESA President
CESA has been vocal,
open and honest with our
dealings with the State and
we have proper controls
that require our members
to perform their duties with
integrity as we subscribe
to the principle of business
ethics.